The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-11

WRITING WAR HISTORY.
The War Records once and its voIuminous
Contenus-A Valuable Collection.
Washington star.
The place where .swar "reminiscences" are
made is here in Washington. It is little square
gray-stone building g street Any sort of
war reminiscence that is wanted can be had
there very short notice. The war articles
that appear in such numbers in popular maya
zines and newspapers, written by generals,
and privates with wonderful rscollections.
come in part or in full from
upon by the Century or some other popular peri
odcal to write his recollections of the war; he
repairs at once to this Mace to gather up his
recoilections. 1t is sort or magic cell which
awakens tagging memory and corrects popular
fallacies. Gen. Wallace, Gen. Beauregard, Col.
Allen, Gen. Corse Gen. Smith and Gen. Sher-
man. all go there put on their thinking CAPS;
or, when they do not go in person. they write for
information. This great wakener of recollections
is the war records Office. The amount of infor-
nation they have collected is almost inconceiva-
BILE. great mass of the material for the war
articles that have appeared in the Century, 10
dug out of the records there. Many old war
veterans go there and search out the old docu-
ments before writing the history of what they
saw. It is astonishing how often they are
forced by the cold, dried and well preserved
facts to discard pet notions about how things
were, and are obliged to revise their impressions
about things with which they nad thought them
selves entirely familiar. Frequently officers
led the charge against each others
forces have met here for the first time
to know each other. Each looking at
the battle or the maneuvre from different
standpoint. they come to look over the records
to see how it really was There is no chance
for any quarrel about it There is room fog
exaggeration. The records are right at hand to
sustain the truth or to brand fallacy. Gener-
ally both men find that their impressions were
soon become cordial There have been some re-
markable meetings here OF men who fought hard
face to face. but never met before. All who
have met this way have become friends. They
sit and talk the whole thing over correct
each others errors of memory, or are
both set right by the record Sherman, Sheri-
younger Lees have met there. Sherman has
drawn largely upon these records in some of his
writings. General Grant, while writing his
book, was in constant communication with Gen. 8
Marcus j. Wright, who does the work OF collect
ing the confederate records. A large amount
of the matter in the book was got in this way.
He also furnished information to the Office and
corrected erroneous statements made.
jeff Davis has drawn upon this source for infor-
has in his possession a letter book filled with
nothing but letters from Grant and Davis upon
the same subjects.
Strange TO say, jeff Davis was among the very
first to respond to the call of the government for
official papers of the Confederacy. He sent all
his papers carefully soon as he received the
request When the work OF collecting the rec
ords first begun it thought that they
would never be able to get enough of the confed-
crate papers to make the record complete; but
for nine years now General Wright has been
writing to the surviving confederate officers or
the families of officers who were killed, ard he
has succeeded in collecting fully as complete a
had of the federal. All letters
or orders written by officials or
officers of the army during the war that relate
at all TO the subject of the collected and
compiled and printed without editing. When
the work is all done there will have to be
other history of the war written from these
Monv hsnOu haV haap cd
as truths will be proven by these records to be
absolutely false. They will show that officers
on both sides have been overestimated. and
that other officers have never got the credit
that was due them. There is sort
of halo of romance surrounding all
the battles that puts history in false
der the excitement of the time have often |
fallen into error Of exaggerating the enemy's |
v esror wnen s nas to
the battle or Bull Run. 1t mas always been be- |
lieyed that the federal forces that occasion |
greatly outnumbered the confederates. II has |
gone into history so. In the North as we'll as in |
the South it has been accepted a |
tact not to be disputed, and the Northern |
their large army should have been defeated |
by much smaller force OF confederates.
These records bring to light the fact that there |
was not difference of thousand men between |
the strength Of the two armies, and of those |
actually engaged in the battle, the confederatas
had within 500 of as many men as the Federals.
odds of battle have been accepted very |
heavy, when such was not tho case; and |
there are the expositions of plans and purposes |
that throw entirely new light on his. |
tory. Besides the official records that will |
all, in course of time, be bound in many vol |
umes, Gen. Wright has in his possession many |
private letters written to him by officers on both
Sides which will be of great interest some time. |
Another very interesting thing is the collection |
of photographs of the Union and Confederate |
officers. The walls OF the room in which he |
works covered with these photographs. and |
several large size packing boxes filled with |
them. He has the picture of almost any officer |
on either side any one would be likely to want
In ALL he has about 1900 Of them,
from generals to colonies. captains,
lieutenants. and even prvates of GER
tain famous corps. One Of these latter groups
is Bulbor's Battery. C. 8. Artillery. Federal and
confederate officers are hung together indiscrim-
inately in the collection. with here and there q
minister priest. All the famous command
ing officers, and hundreds who won fame within
narrower limit are there. The collection in
cludes a great many pictures not to be had else
where, and this gallery has been drawn upon
largely for illustrations, as the records have for
facts by war writer's